Professor John William Goodby FRS

Professor of Materials Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of York

Over three decades, John Goodby has become pre-eminent in territories involving physics, chemistry and biology through his elegant studies of the processes of molecular aggregation/disaggregation. He is distinguished internationally as a materials scientist focussing on liquid crystals, complex fluids and self-organising systems. He developed the now standard classification of smectic liquid crystals and discovered several new states of matter, one of which, the TGB phase, as noted by Nobel Laureate de Gennes, unifies liquid crystal phase transition phenomena with superconductors. Goodby's materials are now exploited by three spin-off companies, and additionally one discotic liquid crystal is widely used in computer screens and TVs.